Clawing My Way to the Middle“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ― Sun Tzu

Posts tagged “post”

The mornings have gotten a slight chill and the days have been warm and mild and thankfully devoid of the damp humidity. We have new readers from China so welcome! It has been an extremely busy week and much of the week I fought against excited energy that bordered on nervous a few times. I meditated on while those feelings tapped away and it was because I felt fear. See when you’re fighting and pushing hard to open doors you’re reacting, feeling and not just thinking. What happens when a door opens? Or when a couple of doors open? Do you have everything you need to step through? Which door do you step through first? Patience is also always a battle. I had a couple of days this week whereas good developments happened that were a result of previous actions. The “watched pot never boils” sort of lesson. Let’s look at some random updates in no particular order.

UPDATES

Chasing the Star has been selected to play in the Lanett City Film Festival in Lanett, Alabama. We have more screenings, reviews and such as we build towards the Sept 5th national release. The first responses to the film buyers have been strong. Our distributor is crediting the quality of the film, cover art and the true gap in the mythology of the wisemen for our strong response/interest. The distributor has also engaged with Movie Guide for a promotional package that will target 100k+ contact list. 150k social media hits, special site take over and online radio promotion.

Fans of the 1st film in The Quest Trilogy Forty Nights keeps pushing out into the marketplace.

Updates on Part 3 “The Christ Slayer” – the VFX work and fine tuning the edit is underway. Audiences will get a first peek at the teaser on Aug 7th and I’m very excited for everyone to get a watch.

WILD FAITH is close to releasing a new BTS sizzle and the poster has been slow but is coming. I met with post supervisor Dennis Therrian on Friday and everything is flowing great. I know we’ll have an enjoyable film. I’m also looking at multiple pitch’s on the series which the working title is ‘Hastings’ after the town.

A lot of development work on M.B.F. short for ‘Man’s Best Friend’ which now has its letter of intent to distribute from BMG. Our business paperwork is being assembled and key crew and cast are being brought on. We’ll be doing some casting especially in the teen department. We’ll be approaching previous investors first and see where we’re at. Location scouting, scheduling and such is moving forward.

Aside from all that I’ve had strong movement forward on our new CDI website, agent talks and I actually did two reads this week for projects. One is a small dramatic piece locally for a non-profit and the other a film that would shoot in Europe next year. So I threw down a quick read and we’ll see what happens. Many of those reads consist of just a good reading and digestion of the story. After I usually do just 1 take of a few lines so they can hear their words and see my face. Once I hit send I don’t put too much thought into them. That is a good thing to refocus your energy. Again be the PULSE not the RAY. Fixation will not make anything happen any faster or at all. Focus on what you can control.

I’m going to wrap it up. The garden has been doing great and giving fresh veggies. We’ve tied two soccer matches back-to-back this second half of the season so we’ll see what today brings. I’ve almost got enough of the mulberries and rhubarb for the next wine endeavor. I’ll make that once I return from my U.P. walk-about next week. For those not from this area – the UP is the upper part of Michigan – rugged and beautiful. I’ll enjoy getting out in some major wilderness and recharging the mind and spirit.

Be good to one another and thank you for sharing part of your day with me.

Ahhhh…coffee. Awoke to a beautiful light snow that adds brightness to what has been a dark week. Drizzle and dark clouds made the week drag a touch but I had much to do. I had lots of busy work with doing end-of-year taxes on our businesses. It’s surely the “unsexy” side of the business but it’s what keeps the machine working. We continue to refine our process and I appreciate everyone that works that end of the process. I want to welcome the additional countries reading the blog. Denmark is one of the new ones and I’m sure I have my host family and friends from my soccer days to thank. The week also had both post and development work grinding hard. Let’s look at a few of these updates.

WILD FAITH

We’re sitting at about the 70 minute mark with editing. I’ve seen early snippets and continue to release stills and behind the scenes to our website and social media sites. I’m excited about the themes we get to bring to light in this powerful action drama set in post Civil War Michigan. Once I get the business at hand underway I want to return my attention back to the series. I know that I’ve got a few business calls to return this week showing me that we have good buzz.

THE QUEST TRILOGY

DJ Perry as Jesus in FORTY NIGHTS

Forty Nights

The film is almost delivered both digital and paperwork. Again why so many filmmakers fail is because you must have all your process documented. Releases and agreements allow your film product to be taken to market. I know many films stumbled because of not having the required releases. It can hurt the film but also a distributor if it gets released and trouble arises. Years ago we had a film released by one of Hollywood’s top distributors and they insisted on using some box art that wasn’t cleared. We had communications against the art because it wasn’t our artwork, which made no sense. Long short, lawsuit. We were released because of our written objections. They had to yank the title. Our film sued, won and they had to pay a nice sum. But the film could have done more perhaps if someone would have made sure releases were in order. So while a pain in the ass it is a much-needed process. But when the filmmakers are at fault that can kill a film and bring unneeded legal issues so stay on top of your business unless you are just doing it as a hobby, not for profit.

CHASING THE STAR

Poster work for the theatrical is underway. The film is maybe two weeks from being done and we’ll mix and master everything. VFX is the final piece and once that is inserted we have a fully functional battle station. The paperwork with Bridgestone is signed and sent and I’m awaiting the countersigned agreements. Following that we should get our final street date for release. I’m looking forward to our review as a complete film. Success is when the audience can get lost in the story. I’m proud of everyone working so hard.

THE CHRIST SLAYER

This last film has been the main thrust of development. If everything stays the course we’ll enter official pre-production this week. Casting, crewing, VFX tests, location scouting are all underway. We announced Christine Solomon who will play opposite one of our new leads Carl Weyant. We’re soon to announce a few more supporting roles this week. I’m personally excited to return to the role I started in FORTY NIGHTS. It will be my first time returning to a character although it has almost happened several times. I’m excited to explore this other end of the spectrum. I think one of the best developments this week was the return of Chef Eddie. He’s a gourmet chef who spoiled our crew while shooting “Chasing the Star” – and I for one am happy to have him back.

FUTURE

We do have a few development projects starting to take shape that could be the projects we shoot following THE CHRIST SLAYER.

I have a few other thoughts I could ramble on but I refuse to add any negativity into the pot. I can say I’ve been extremely disappointed by several developments and happy that other neglected issues are finally being addressed. I have always had the goal to provide entertainment and to try to expand minds and hearts via storytelling. I will continue that journey and as always I invite you to join us.

Sipping some dark coffee with that hazelnut goodness added as the outside looks like giant snow globe. Yesterday was spent on several shopping trips, a nice meal out and stocking up on food items. Today will be a belated bday gathering for my step bro so at least one trip out. I’m gonna fire up the wood stove at the office and do some organizing. Most of my time lately has been prepping for end-of-the-year and new year business. Let’s look at some updates.

The Quest Trilogy –

One of the teaser posters for CDI’s “40 Nights”

“40 Nights” new deal is complete on our end, signed and awaiting countersigned paperwork. What this will mean is a new push into the market in 2017. A possible return to theaters plus we’ll target a new 2nd quarter Easter 2017 national rollout. A possible festival or two as the film was invited to showcase.

“Chasing the Star” deal is being done as we speak. We’ll be doing premieres including a Yuma, AZ showing when we’re there to film the 3rd movie. A theatrical run plus event showing will follow the premiere(s). The talk is the national release will be in September 2017 on the run up to Christmas 2017.

When “Chasing the Star” is releasing nationally the third film will be finishing post. I think the idea is for 1st of the year 2018 theatrical and event showings on “The Christ Slayer” with a national release targeting either Easter or Christmas 2018.

On “The Christ Slayer” – I’ve been in talks with a handful of directors and I might be close to a decision. Also get those dramatic reels updated especially if you are on the west coast as that is where we will be filming. We announced some of the returning cast and more exciting announcements lie ahead!

This has been an exciting run on this trilogy of films. I hope audiences can enjoy these films for many years to come.

Wild Faith – The feature is in post and will likely be done next Summer (2017) and we’ll plan a fall release. The film is designed to be the pilot feature for a TV series so we’ll see how that plays out. I am doing some prep work on this endeavor which would be quite the undertaking. I’m thinking we might show the 1st teaser trailer on NEW YEARS DAY. This 1800’s tale is going to be powerful and I’m proud to have it counted amongst our product.

I’ve continued to get updates on projects like Sunn Classics “C.U.J.O.” and have a few films I acted in that still have not released “Dead Quiet,” and “Division 19” but that is often the way.

I’m going to cut it here as I have a string of things to get done before the Lions play and we have our family gathering. We might have to hook the dogs up to a sleigh. Have a great day and be safe on those roads.